Tire.



H. BEHM & J. VENE.

T'RE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 2; 1914.

Patvntml Sept. T,- 1915.

INVENTORS /3 WITNESSES I ATTORNE s'.

UNITED sTATEs PTNT ur c HENRY IBEHM ANDJOSEIPH VENIEI, 0F ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS 05 ONE- FIFTH TO SAID IBEHM, ONE-FIFTH TO SAID VENE, ONE-FIFTH T0 WILLIAM MARHS,'

ON E-FIFTH TO GEORGE J. S'IIREISIEIJ, $3., A ND ONE-FIFTH T0 CHARLES C, MAIR, ALL

or ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

To all whom it'mag concern:

Be it known that we, HENRY BEHM, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, and JOSEPH Venn, a subject of the King of Italy, and residents of Elizabeth, .county of Union, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tires, of'which the following isa specification.

This invention relates to a tire for vehicles and is a resilient tire, the resiliency being supplied by elements placed inside of the shoe of the tire, the elements .acting'as individual members to provide resiliency to the tire at the point Where each member is placed. The tire is of the ty be that is adapted for use without danger of puncture, the separate resilient element being adapted to be used a long time, and so installed and made that in the event of any one of them collapsing or being otherwise destroyed, a

new element can be easily installed in the tire. The invention further provides a tire of this type, in which the resilient elements,

which are preferably balls, are held in place by suitable cups Within the shoe of the tire, the cups being disposed to prevent undue wear between the balls and the shoe, and

also between adjacent balls. The cups are preferably made'of material that'is puncture-proof and will preventany pointed or sharp object that might get through the shoe from penetrating intothe balls.

The invention also provides means for holding the balls detachably to the shoe so that a supplemental shoe'or. strip can be made, according to' this invention, and placed within the shoe-of an old tire, the old tire. thuspbeing made ready for use.

tire is in placebn the rim, and provides a tire thatwilljwear'alohg time without having its resilienoy :or usefulness impaired. A tire constructed according to this invention, even if it has its shoe punctured, can still be used on a vehicle. In fact, if some. of the resilient elements are punctured, provided they are inflated elements, the remaining elements will carrythe tire so that it is not necessary to do emergency repairing to a tire of this kind. I

The invention comprises details of constructioii. which are fully described in this I Specification of Letters Patent.

TIRE.

Patented sept. 7, 1915. I Application filed June 2, 1914. Serial No. 842,395. i

specification and finally embodied in the clauses of the claim. i

The invention is illustrated in the accom pa'nying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a longitudinal section v of the rim of a wheel and our improved tire, several of the resilient elements being shown in elevation and several in section. Fig. 2 is a cross section of the tire illustrated in 1, the resilient element in the figure being shown 1n elevation. Fig.3 is a'v'iew similar to Fig. l,-but showing the invention as con forming the body portion of a wheel, the

felly having a fixed rim,12'the reon which is turned up at one side to form a flange 13., The other edge of the felly is provided with a plate 14 and a flange 15, the flanges 13 and 15 being adapted to clench projections 16 of the shoe 17, the bolts or nuts 18 being utilized to hold the parts in their looking. or normal positions. It will be understood that this form of fastening the shoe to the rim is simply to illustrate one type of fasten" 4 ing mean's, and any suitable means forsacuring the parts'together can be employed] .The shoe is provided with a tread 19, this portion being preferably made heavier than the rest of the shoe so that it will stand the wear due to its traction on the ground, as will be evident. "Within the shoe are suitable resilient elements 20, which can be of any desired form and of any suitable mate'- H rial, but we'prefer to make them in the This, the ,requ res'no inflation after the outer faces of the balls and rest in cavities 23, these cavities being arranged between projections 24. It will be evident from this construction that the balls are free to be compressed to a desired extent, the spaces ,Il'lBnt in the shoe. The caps 22 are made of material that isadapted to resist puncture,

metal being the material that is usually used, a light metal being preferred, but one that will ordinarily resist the further progress of any objects that penetrate the tread of the shoe far enough to engage the cup. The cops are preferably held in place by reason of their edges 25 fitting in the undercut edges 26 of the cavities 23. It will thus be seen that acup can beforced into its cavity, the cup moving the projections 24: slightly apart when the cup "is being inserted, but after it is in place the projections, which form the longitudinal limits of the cavities, spring into place, and the undercut edges 26 engage the edges of the cups and the eups are ready t -receive the balls. I

If desired, the accidental removal by extending the projections slightly beyond the line of centers of the balls and thus hold the balls in place.'

This type isshown in Fig. 3. In this figure, however, we show a strip 27 which is a supplemental strip or tread and is adaptedto be laid inside the shoe of an old tire. In this construction the projections 2%? are ex tending beyond the line of centers of the balls 20, the side edges 28 of the projections engaging the balls and holding them inplacc against the cups 22 so that the strip can be handled, with the balls attached toit, the balls being simply pressed'into their position, this being possible on account of their resiliency or compressibility. In

-this construction the projections separate the balls so as to hold them against movement against each other and the cups form fenders or protectors for the balls in case any sharp object penetrates the shoe of the tire.

The drawings show hollow balls, these being preferably made ofrubber, but it will be understood that other forms and material may be used, and solid balls of resilient material might also be used, the reballs can be held against siliency being determined by the amount of coi'npression, or load that the tire is expected to carry. In case of a heavy vehicle the solid rubber balls can be used, and in the ase of lighter vehicles hollow rubber balls or solid balls made of sponge rubber can be employed.

It will further be evident that if, for some reason, one of the balls needs to be removed from the tire, due to its collapse or for any other reason, the shoe can bereleased so that the resilient element in ques tion can be removed and another. one out in its place, and then when the shoe is astened down the tire is again ready for use without the necessity ot blowing it up.

Having thus .lescribcd our invention what a we claim is:

1. In a tire. a shoe with projections on its inner face, ba'lls between the projections, whereby the balls are held against longitudinal movement, the projections being higher than the radius of the balls, but less in height than the diameter of the balls, and

puncture-proof cups between the projections and covering the outer surfaces of the balls, the projections spacing the balls apart but leaving them free to expand at their inner portions.

In a tire, a shoe having a series of projections on its inner face, the spaces between the projections being cu -shaped with their edges undercut. cups vfitting said cavities and being held in place by reason of their edges engaging the undercut edges of the 

